Peak buses full by 2010, study warns

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The bus system will reach the limits of its ability to convey passengers to the city centre during the morning peak by the end of the decade, a confidential internal planning report says.

Traffic congestion in inner-city streets is already so bad that motorists face an average wait of more than 57 seconds to get through a single set of lights at at least nine intersections, the study by the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources shows.

Undertaken as part of an examination of the idea of putting light rail or trams through the CBD, the report shows Sydney faces huge constraints in getting any more people into or through the city, with the bus, rail and road systems all approaching the limits of their capacity.

The average speed on some streets is as low as 3 kmh, well below the Roads and Traffic Authority's peak-hour average for major roads of 35 kmh.

Key CityRail stations are operating near capacity, with Town Hall handling about 140,000 passenger movements a day, and it is hard to increase the huge number of buses coming into the city - about 1200 enter the CBD in the two hours from 7.30am.

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"Simply adding buses is not an ideal solution to the problem of satisfying demand," the report says. "This is not only because the additional bus flows contribute significantly to the road congestion problem but also because there is a significant limitation on kerb space available for bus stops and layovers in central Sydney."

In addition, the report confirmed that the prospect of expanding Town Hall station to take more commuters would be "extremely expensive".

The report says the State Transit Authority has put in place plans to allow it to cope with demand for the next two decades, but the planning department argued that the government bus operator had underestimated the coming growth.

The changes planned by the authority before the opening of the cross-city tunnel next year include moving some buses from George Street, where they are subject to the greatest delays, to Elizabeth Street, making new bus lanes and removing on-street parking on the main bus routes in the city centre.

"It is our opinion that in light of the more recent work in relation to demand growth, the STA may have underestimated the future demand for buses in central Sydney and as a consequence overestimated the time period for which their draft strategy would provide adequate bus capacity," the report says.

Crucially, the planning department report says, if more commuters turn to buses to get to work, "then the peak-hour capacity provided by this strategy may be exhausted by 2010".

The report recommends the establishment of a light-rail system from Circular Quay to Central station, "as soon as possible after the opening of the [cross- city tunnel] . . . but, in any event, before the bus system serving central Sydney runs out of capacity, which could be as early as 2010".

At the Sydney Futures Forum this week the Planning and Infrastructure Minister, Craig Knowles, unveiled a proposal from the private sector for a light-rail system through the CBD, although he refused to commit the Government to its construction.

Instead, Mr Knowles said the proposal would be studied for several months.